Landing Site Region

This scene shows dark sand dunes marching over the ridges created by an alluvial (water-deposited) fan in an impact crater.

This color thumbnail image was obtained by NASA's Curiosity rover during its descent to the surface of Mars on Aug. 5 PDT (Aug. 6 EDT).

There are steep scarps facing the poles of both hemispheres that expose thick (up to 100 meters or more) sections of nearly pure water ice.

This dune field in Aonia Terra shows sand dunes with a variety of morphologies. These complex shapes often indicate that the dominating winds change direction, either over time or from one locatio...

Well-Preserved Crater with Central Peak in Chryse Planitia

This series of images shows carbon dioxide ice sublimating (going directly from a solid to a gas) inside a pit at Mars' south pole. Each frame of the animation was taken by the HiRISE camera on NAS...

The white arrows indicate locations in this scene where numerous seasonal dark streaks, called "recurring slope lineae," have been identified in the Coprates Montes area of Mars' Valles Marineris b...

Images of locations in Gale Crater taken from orbit around Mars reveal evidence of erosion in recent geological times and development of small scarps, or vertical surfaces.

This HiRISE image shows diverse layers in a region near Mawrth Vallis, a channel that was probably carved by water in Mars' ancient past. The color subimage shows details of layers exposed in a cra...

This image is of a portion of the Southern plains region within Hellas, the largest impact basin on Mars, with a diameter of about 2300 kilometers (1400 miles).

This HiRISE image shows a crater approximately 11 km (7 miles) in diameter, located in Acidalia Planitia, part of the Northern Plains. Several features in and around this crater are suggestive of f...

This picture of a heart-shaped feature in Arabia Terra on Mars was taken on May 23, 2010, by the Context Camera (CTX) on NASA's Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter.

This image shows layered blocks tilted at high angles, diverse color and textures and dark dunes. Some of the bedrock may have originated at great depths, uplifted first by Becquerel Crater and lat...

This impact crater has gullies incised into its walls on the north and eastern sides. A couple of gullies on the north wall are unusual because a segment in the middle becomes wider than the upslop...

The High Resolution Imaging Science Experiment (HiRISE) camera on NASA's Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter snapped this series of false-color pictures of sand dunes in the north polar region of Mars.

The Context Camera on NASA's Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter has been taking images of Mars since 2006. This animation shows, at one frame per month, how these observations have accumulated to cover mo...

The high resolution imaging science experiment (HiRISE) is one of six science instruments for NASA's Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter.

Back-and-forth blinking of this two-image animation shows movement of ripples covering a sand dune on Mars.

This "ring trough" or eroded pit crater, is located in the rugged southern highland terrain known as Noachis Terra. The HiRISE image shows the layered, boulder-rich wall rock facing to the northeas...

This image shows NASA's Mars Exploration Rover Opportunity perched on the edge of "Concepción" crater in Meridiani Planum, Mars.

Dark, narrow streaks on Martian slopes such as these at Hale Crater are inferred to have been formed by seasonal flow of water on contemporary Mars. Detection of hydrated salts at the streaks suppo...

This series of images shows warm-season features that might be evidence of salty liquid water active on Mars today.

This map shows the route driven by NASA's Curiosity Mars rover from the location where it landed in August 2012 to its location in mid-November 2015, approaching examples of dunes in the "Bagnold D...

This image from NASA's Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter shows channels to the southeast of Hale crater on southern Mars. Taken by the orbiter's High Resolution Imaging Science Experiment (HiRISE) camera...

The Eridania basin of southern Mars is believed to have held a sea about 3.7 billion years ago, with seafloor deposits likely resulting from underwater hydrothermal activity. This graphic shows est...